COBA7, as National Advocate for Land-lease Communities, to Attend & Speak, During
‘Duty to Serve Listening Session(s)’

Community Owners (7 Part) Business Alliance, or COBA7, has accepted an invitation from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (‘FHFA’), to attend and comment, at one or more ‘Duty to Serve Listening Sessions’ planned during the next few months.

This is another way COBA7 represents the business interests of land-lease community owners/operators, large & small, from throughout the U.S! During the past few months, COBA7 has participated in public meetings hosted by FHFA, DOE, and other governmental agencies. A report describing the ‘Duty to Serve Listening Session(s)’, in which COBA7 participates, will be published in a future issue of the Allen Letter professional journal.

NOTE. The Allen Letter professional journal and the Allen CONFIDENTIAL! business newsletter are the last two remaining print publications serving the HUD-Code manufactured housing industry and land-lease community realty asset class. If you are not yet reading either or both trade papers, phone the Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764 to affiliate with COBA7 today, at the Option I, II, or III level.

Why is COBA7 affiliation important to YOU? Simply put; in most federal agency meetings attended to date, the only businessperson in the room (i.e. Someone who ‘makes payroll’ week after week) has been there representing COBA7! Seriously. Everyone else in the room is usually an agency bureaucrat, corporate attorney, or association staffer. So, if YOU want continued ‘business representation’, you’ll support COBA7 as your national advocate!

MHICanada & CMHI (‘Canadian Manufactured Housing Institute’) have regrouped in council fashion, under the Canadian Home Builders Association (‘CHBA’). This occurring in a fashion similar to the present day Building Systems Council (‘BSC’), operating in council fashion, under the auspices of the National Association of Homebuilders (‘NAHB’), here in the U.S.

Stop and read that paragraph again! Then ponder this present and possible future state of U.S. manufactured housing affairs:

MHI, while not regrouping, does claim via its’ recently revamped website (manufacturedhousing.org), to be REPRESENTING THE FACTORY-BUILT HOUSING INDUSTRY. This an attempt to parlay its’ 10% national factory-built housing share (i.e. 5% @ HUD-Code housing & 5% modular housing), by arbitrarily including panelizers’ 50% market share, and production site builders’ 39%, to achieve 100% market coverage? Not a bad strategy, if they can pull it off – convincing panelizers & production site builders to depart NAHB’s BSC and become direct, dues-paying members of the institute. Otherwise, it’s simply, in this industry observer’s opinion, a national advocacy overreach pipedream

Well, since MHI is already thinking ‘outside the box’ relative to national representation, maybe there’s a parallel option – though some might call it heretical*1:

In the spirit of the opening paragraph of Part II, and given similar perennial antipathy*2 between U.S. manufactured housing’s two oldest national advocates, MHARR & MHI; is ‘regrouping together in BSC council fashion’, under NAHB auspices*3 – or some ‘new’ organization, that much of a stretch in today’s world where we ship but 80,000+/- new HUD-Code homes during all of 2016 – compared to 372,843 shipped during 1998? Think about it.

(I have, and that’s why I’ve made this bold suggestion. Now, is it a good idea? I don’t know. On one hand, it’d be Great to have manufactured housing finally viewed as an integral part of the overall national housing scene! However, if ‘counciling together’ with BSC & NAHB occurs at the cost of autonomy (‘independence’…think Federally preemptive building code), then doing so could mark the demise of manufactured housing altogether. What do you think?)

With that said (penned), how much longer are we going to wait, as a divided ‘large vs. small company’ industry, to take – if need be – radical steps, to regain the robust factory-built housing market share of 18 years past? After all, HUD-Code Community Series Homes, when sited within professionally managed land-lease communities, charging market sensitive & homeowner/site lessee ‘fair value proposition’ rental homesite rates, is by far the most competitive type affordable housing/lifestyle combination available anywhere in the U.S. today! And yet, as the ‘Tipping Point’ WHITE PAPER Expose’ clearly pointed out, we’re letting that market advantage slip away!

Furthermore, claiming inflated factory-built national housing market share simply ‘does not make it so’; rather, time is a-passing, if not already past, for us to brainstorm, plan and effect our collective destiny, the sooner the better!

Is anyone at MHI & MHARR really listening? How ’bout proving you are, by uniting and getting this affordable housing/lifestyle ball a-rolling once again!

Yes, you read that right. Two months ago it was the widespread distribution of the ‘Tipping Point’ WHITE PAPER Expose’, warning HUD-Code housing producers and land-lease community owners/operators what occurs when:

If you did not receive, see, or read this four page expose’, but would like to do so, simply phone COBA7 via (317) 346-7156 and ask for a FREE copy!

Next expose’?

MHI’s website overreach, claiming to be REPRESENTING THE FACTORY-BUILT HOUSING INDUSTRY in toto! Reread Part II of this blog posting for details….also blog postings # 426 & 427 at community-investor.com website. Just left click on blog icon and scroll back thru the archives.

And NOW this one: ‘Freelance Land-lease Community Consultants’, Be Careful Who You Trust & Hire!

This was a challenge dealt with around the turn of the 21st Century, when many portfolio property management (‘PM’) executives lost their jobs. All has been relatively quiet for awhile, but during the past six or so months, there’s been a spate of displeasure directed towards mostly noncredentialied (i.e. ‘not certified’), inexperienced freelance PM consultants, promising much but delivering little.

The Good News is, there’re practical ways to protect oneself from these charlatans. Read the expose’ featured in the February 2017 issue of the Allen Letter professional journal. If not a COBA7 affiliate yet, phone (317) 346-7156 to do so.
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